Economic activity is expected to fall by 0.9% in the United States in 2009, by 0.5% in the Euro area and by 0.1% in Japan as OECD countries enter a protracted slowdown, according to latest projections.
The Euro-zone has officially slipped into recession after EU figures showed that the economy shrank by 0.2% in the third quarter. This follows a 0.2% contraction in the 15-nation area in the previous quarter from April to June. Two quarters of negative growth define a technical recession.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged leaders of the G20 developed and emerging economies to resist calls for protectionism. Speaking in New York ahead of the weekend G 20 summit on the widening global financial crisis PM Brown said protectionism was the road to ruin.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Chilean Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley signed Friday in London a Memorandum of Understanding on Educational Scholarships, the first of its kind and which will help increase the number of Chilean students in the UK.
A deal on the Doha round of trade talks could be reached within weeks and a summit of industrial and emerging countries this weekend must send a clear signal to achieve this, the EU top trade official said.
The Bureau of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) began this week a three day meeting in Gibraltar under the theme of Gibraltar in the EU.
A United Nations-backed conference of major wheat producing countries has concluded with a call for urgent international action prevent and control a dangerous fungus that can cause heavy damage to wheat crops and threatens food security.
Former Governor of the Falkland Islands and a past British ambassador to Peru has been fined by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for insider dealing in an AIM-listed mining company which he chaired, reports Thursday edition of The Times.
The British pound has continued to fall against the US dollar, hitting its lowest rate in six and a half years against the US currency on fears of a deep recession.
Germany has officially entered a recession after government figures showed that Europe's largest economy contracted by 0.5% in the third quarter. This is the second consecutive quarter that the economy has shrunk after a 0.4% contraction in the second quarter.